1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus using electrophotographic type, which forms an image on a recording material by the electrophotographic type. Especially the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having sound information generating means so that operation guidance or a state of the apparatus can be transmitted by means of sound information.
2. Description of the Related Art
A image forming apparatus today has an operating part provided with a liquid crystal display so that operation guidance or apparatus state are displayed on the display to let a user know such information. However, for a user having bad eyesight, it is more convenient if the user can recognize them by means of sound information rather than visual sense. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-122409 describes a speaker for guiding the operation of the image forming apparatus by means of sound information. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 05-197230 proposes a structure in which a speaker for Japanese speech sound information is incorporated in an apparatus main body and disposed behind an operating part, and another speaker for outputting speech sound information of languages other than Japanese can be mounted on an outer portion of the image forming apparatus. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-128690 proposes to provide a user with various information pieces of an apparatus main body of the image forming apparatus by using a speaker. The various information pieces include a structure in which a speaker of a facsimile machine which can be mounted on the image forming apparatus is disposed such that an output direction of the speaker is directed toward an operation side of the image forming apparatus.
In recent years, as information which can be generated from the image forming apparatus, there are various information pieces of the facsimile apparatus which should be made known to a user for using facsimile machine, and guidance information for allowing the user to know various settings or state concerning operation of the apparatus main body of the image forming apparatus and concerning operation of the apparatus main body. However, if the speaker is previously be mounted on the image forming apparatus main body in order to provide the user with these information pieces as sound information, there is a problem that the apparatus is increased in size for a user who need not the speaker.
If such a speaker is an optional part, it is possible to prevent the apparatus main body of the image forming apparatus from being increased in size. If a user who needs the sound information mounts the speaker as the optional part, he or she can achieve the purpose, and userability can be enhanced.
When the speaker for such sound information is to be mounted, it is possible to compose such that different kinds of sound information pieces output from the image forming apparatus are output from one speaker. Different kinds of sound information include sound information pieces which are output when the user is not operating the image forming apparatus such as transmission/reception sound of the facsimile machine, and sound information pieces which are output when the user is operating the image forming apparatus such as operation guidance sound information. In such a case, however, if the transmission/reception sound of the facsimile machine is output when the user is operating the image forming apparatus in accordance with the sound information guidance, the user must wait until any of the sound information is completed.
To shorten such waiting time of user, it is preferable that a plurality of speakers are mounted so that these information pieces can be output at the same time. To satisfy this, when the facsimile machine information and the apparatus main body operation guidance information are to be output from the speaker, the facsimile machine information concerning the facsimile machine is output from an electric substrate for the facsimile machine, and information concerning the operation of the apparatus main body is output from a controller of the apparatus main body.
When the plurality of speakers are mounted, there is a merit that the information pieces can be output from the plurality of speakers at the same time. However, when a user is operating the main body of the image forming apparatus while hearing the operation guidance information from one of speaker, another information piece is output from another speaker in some cases. In such a case, the sound information pieces are mixed, and there is a possibility that a user who is operating is prone to fail easily to hear necessary guidance information.
There is a method that when information pieces are output from the plurality of speakers at the same time, sound other than the operation guidance information is lowered. According to this method, however, a user may fail to hear sound other than the operation guidance information on the other hand.